1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to food preparation devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to machines and apparatuses for preparing cooked foods, especially dumplings.
2. Discussion of the Background
People have been making dumplings for years. In a typical process, the cook uses various cooking utensils to extrude soft batter and the like into a pot of hot liquid, such as water or oil. These conventional utensils generally include a partially perforated (e.g., holes distributed over half a surface) or totally perforated (holes distributed over an entire surface) pan or a die through which a cook extrudes pre-prepared through the perforated plates, or surfaces, by applying a force to the batter, perhaps using a tool to assist in applying the force.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,452,688 describes a dough extruding apparatus having an extrusion die mounted directly above a cooking vessel. The dough is extruded through the die by a force exerted on a pressure plate by manually pushing handle downwardly.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,461,504 describes a macaroni die that includes a plurality of plates secured together. The die is adapted for producing food products with irregular shapes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,452,581 describes a cooking utensil having a pan with a food holding area and an array of holes making up the extrusion area for batter that is pressed therethrough. The pan is removably mounted on a cooking vessel by way of a single removable clamp that holds the pan in place during the batter extrusion process.
The present inventor identified a number of limitations with this convention device. For example, the use of a single clamp provides insufficient stability for a pan, thus creating a safety hazard because the device is used over boiling water. Furthermore, the device cannot be universally used over a wide variety of cooking vessels because the clamp is not adapted for use with cooking vessels having, for example, a curved lip. The utility of this device is also limited because the single clamp mounting arrangement of the pan on top of cooking vessel leaves excessive exposed surface area of the boiling water, and thus creating a steam scolding hazard for the cook.
The present inventor also recognized that this conventional device offers no provision for a handle, making the pan awkward to manage. Lastly, certain batter mixtures are very sticky and can easily lift up the whole cooking utensil and force it to fall into the boiling water, thus creating another safety hazard.